Inquirer editorial ‘home team’ advantage in place

‘HOME TEAM’ (From left-right): Juliet Javellana, Inquirer Central Desk Director; Celest Flores-Colina Inquirer.net Sports Editor; Teddyvic Melendres, Philippine Daily Inquirer Sports Editor; JV Rufino, Inquirer group Director for Mobile; Volt Contreras, Inquirer Metro Editor; Chito dela Vega, Inquirer Libre Editor-In-Chief.

After putting together a multiawarded group to cover the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight in Las Vegas, the Inquirer is also assembling an elite “home team” to make sure the country’s leading news provider leaves no stone unturned in giving its readers the most comprehensive coverage of the highly anticipated event.

“We want to make sure that we give our readers the best, because that is what they deserve,” said Inquirer editor in chief Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc.

The home team, made up of the best and brightest of the Inquirer Group of Companies, will traffic reports sent in by the coverage team in the United States to the various platforms of the Inquirer Group.

Heading the team that will be based in the country are Inquirer Sports Editor Teddyvic Melendres, Inquirer.net Sports Editor Celest Flores-Colina and Inquirer Libre editor in chief Chito de la Vega.

They will manage the Manila side of the “Pacquiao vs Mayweather: the Inquirer Report.”

Multiplatform coverage

Their job is to ensure that all content produced by the coverage team will reach the Inquirer’s news consumers on a 24/7 cycle via print, online, radio, social media, mobile and other platforms.

De la Vega will be the gatekeeper of all content sent by the US team, a five-member group headed by news editor and veteran sportswriter Jun Engracia. He will farm out content to the different platforms in coordination with Engracia.

READ: INQ ‘knockout’ coverage of megafight to be ‘all heart’

“The Inquirer promises to deliver a world-class, multiplatform coverage never before seen in Philippine media. And the Inquirer news central desk will make sure this coordinated effort is both exhaustive and extensive,” De la Vega said.

Behind-the-scene stories

Melendres and Colina will be receiving the bulk of this content. The Inquirer sports editor will close the sports and special supplement sections and coordinate with the central desk for content that will be used on the paper’s front page.

“Because of the unprecedented size of the Inquirer coverage, readers can expect from our print platform more behind-the-scene stories and in-depth analyses of the fight from start to finish,” Melendres said.

“We can assure our readers that their excitement over this once-in-a-lifetime fight will be commensurate to the cost of sending our topnotch team to cover the fight for the country’s No. 1 newspaper,” he added.

Content 24/7

Colina will handle online material, making sure that Filipinos in the country and all over the world will have access to content on a 24/7 basis.

“We want to make sure Inquirer.net will give our readers round-the-clock news, in-depth features and other multimedia content so that we will be their go-to resource for everything Pacquiao-Mayweather,” Colina said, adding that the Inquirer’s online portal has a special site dedicated for the fight called “The Pacquiao Files.”

READ: For more updates on the “Fight of the Century,” visit The Pacquiao Files

Melendres, Colina and De la Vega will also make sure that content produced by reporters and correspondents based in the country, who will be covering the event from as far as Mindanao, will be delivered to the Inquirer’s wide audience.

Also on hand are editors and top personnel of every platform of the Inquirer Group: Bandera, Cebu Daily News, dzIQ990, Inquirer Catalyst and Megamobile. They will be backstopped by a sales and marketing crew that will make sure the message reaches a wide audience.

Seamless trafficking

A key to the seamless trafficking of reports to the various platforms will be the newly formed Inquirer Central Desk, which will be a hub of content activity during the coverage.

“With our new central desk integrating the coverage of our news and social media platforms, we are ready to deliver a great blow-by-blow report of the fight,” said newly appointed director of the central desk, Juliet Javellana.

“Our readers can access our stories, photos and videos at Inquirer.net and our social media accounts on their smartphones and tablets, and get quick per-round analysis on Radyo Inquirer,” Javellana said.

“Of course, the next day they can savor the awesome wrap-up and wonderful insights by our veteran editors and sportswriters in the Inquirer, as well as in Libre, Bandera and Cebu Daily News.”

“We want to cover the Fight of the Century the way it should be covered: We will cover not only the latest news or revealing trivia but real depth, deeply reported stories from both old hands and new eyes,” said John Nery, editor in chief of Inquirer.net.

“We will give that to them, short of giving them the actual ringside experience,” Engracia said. “We hope to give our readers something neither TV nor radio nor Internet can provide.”

Color from every angle

Readers can look forward to an amped-up coverage when fight day rolls around (May 3 in Manila) from both teams. While focus will still be on the fight, the teams will come up with color from every angle, be they lifestyle, entertainment or even politics.

Content will also be available on Inquirer’s official accounts on mobile applications (Kakao, Line, Viber, Firechat and WeChat), posted on social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram), and reported on Radyo Inquirer dzIQ 990AM.

Unified hashtags of #PacMay and #LabanManny will be used on social media and mobile chat apps for the “Pacquiao vs Mayweather: the Inquirer Report.”

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